One of the nation's largest online book retailers is offering a title
promoting homosexual sex with children.
According to a description by the book's publisher,
"Understanding
Loved Boys and Boylovers," available on Amazon.com, attempts to debunk the "myth" that it is harmful to youth to engage in "intergenerational male/male sexual activities" -- or men having sex with young boys.
"The long assumed 'harm' of such activities has failed to be supported by research, and the sociocultural 'wrongness' based on this 'harm' is therefore left without any rational basis," said the review.
Written by David L. Riegel, the book also claims that despite "howls of protest" over its conclusions -- from "right wing radicals all the way up to and including the United States House of Representatives" -- earlier "no harm done" suppositions have "been judged to be true, accurate and objective science" after "having been subjected to intensive examination at every level."
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Riegel states that he has spent years moderating websites "devoted to examining these issues." He said, "early on ... it became obvious ... that the men -- and a few boys -- who participate in these sites are not the stereotypical monsters that the media portrays."
Instead, he said, "they are sincere, concerned, loving human beings who simply have -- and were probably born with -- a sexual orientation that is neither understood nor accepted by most others."
"The condemnation and reprehension these boys and men are dealt by society are primarily the result of misinformation that has become institutionalized over time by those who are in positions to deceive and mislead public thinking and policy," Riegel added.
The author cites a controversial study published by the
American
Psychological Association in the July/August 1998 edition of the Psychological Bulletin called, "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples."
The report was widely criticized, most prominently by nationally syndicated talk host and columnist
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who said the report "states that sexual relationships between adults and willing children might be positive to children."
So offensive were the conclusions in the report that a year ago Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 107, condemning and denouncing all suggestions promoting boy-men sex contained in it. The resolution passed 355-0, with 13 abstentions, Schlessinger reported in her
column last August. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay also participated in a press conference denouncing both the report's conclusions and the American Psychological Association for publishing the findings.
After the uproar over the report, the APA said that though it did not support child sexual abuse, it could not "censor [its] journals and avoid articles that might cause controversy."
"However, we have to realize that in the age of Internet, cable and instantly accessible information, our journals no longer speak only to scholars," said American Psychological Association CEO Raymond D. Fowler, Ph.D. He also hinted that the report had been "misinterpreted" and that his organization "must work harder to explain psychological research to policymakers and the public."
"If our scientific publications, sometime written in arcane language difficult for non-psychologists to understand, are likely to be misinterpreted by the public, we have to find ways to explain them or we will pay dearly for their confusion," Fowler wrote in a
column explaining the APA's position on the research involved in producing the report.
Several psychiatric professionals agreed with Schlessinger and debunking the report as "junk science," including Dr. Paul Fink, head of the Leadership Council and past president of the
American Psychiatric
Association.
For its part, Amazon.com takes the issue of what kind of content to offer "very seriously," according to company spokesman John Schommer.
"Our goal is to support freedom of expression and to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover and buy any title they might be seeking," Schommer told WorldNetDaily.
"That selection includes some titles which most people, including employees of Amazon.com, may find distasteful or otherwise objectionable," he said, quick to point out that the online bookseller "does not sell pornography or child pornography."
Schommer said the company "believes it is censorship not to sell certain books because we believe their message repugnant, and we would be rightly criticized if we did so." He added that unless prohibited by law, Amazon.com would continue to make controversial titles available.
"It's important to note that we do not endorse any opinions expressed by individual authors, musical artists or filmmakers," he said.
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The APAs: 'Academic Pedophile Advocates'